Regular price: £16.99
This is the real world of modern Karachi as seen through the eyes of a young woman in an elite family. Here are the hidden dramatic realities of the upper class, the undertow of religion, revealing the truth sometimes spoken in hushed whispers, more often swept away by the flourish of silk saris at extravagant dinner parties...or perhaps never mentioned at all.
Hanna has a foodie's dream job: as a culinary journalist, she gets to travel across Europe to write up the Continent's finest restaurants. But after penning a scathing review of a restaurant nestled in a Tuscan apricot grove, her boss informs her of a big problem: when the restaurant's owner read the article, she keeled over dead from a heart attack. Now the owner's grandson, Fabrizio, has filed a lawsuit against the magazine, and if Hanna can't convince him to drop the case, she'll lose her job.
It should have been an ordinary birth, the start of an ordinary happy family. But the night Dr David Henry delivers his wife's twins is a night that will haunt five lives for ever.
LuLing Young is now in her 80s, and finally beginning to feel the effects of old age. Trying to hold on to the evaporating past, she begins to write down all that she can remember of her life as a girl in China. Meanwhile, her daughter Ruth, a ghostwriter for authors of self-help books, is losing the ability to speak up for herself in front of the man she lives with. LuLing can only look on, helpless: her prickly relationship with her daughter does not make it easy to discuss such matters.
Throughout the years, sisters Gracie and Juliette Bennett have let life's changes pull them in opposite directions. But when their beloved grandmother Mimi passes away, they're drawn back together in the most unexpected way. Set to inherit the family home, a charming Craftsman with an overgrown garden and lush fruit trees near the beach in Santa Barbara, the estranged sisters learn there's a catch: the house can be theirs, but only if they agree to live in it for one year - together.
Sixty-one-year-old Shelby Truman, a romance novelist, has received a request to visit her childhood friend, Eddie, who is on Death Row. Though mentally ill, Eddie is scheduled to be executed for the disturbing, brutal murders of his wife and unborn child. As Shelby travels home to Texas for the unnerving reunion, she steps back into memories of her past, recalling her five-decade-long relationship with Eddie in order to understand what led the beautiful but troubled boy who lived across the street to become a murderer.
This is the real world of modern Karachi as seen through the eyes of a young woman in an elite family. Here are the hidden dramatic realities of the upper class, the undertow of religion, revealing the truth sometimes spoken in hushed whispers, more often swept away by the flourish of silk saris at extravagant dinner parties...or perhaps never mentioned at all.
Hanna has a foodie's dream job: as a culinary journalist, she gets to travel across Europe to write up the Continent's finest restaurants. But after penning a scathing review of a restaurant nestled in a Tuscan apricot grove, her boss informs her of a big problem: when the restaurant's owner read the article, she keeled over dead from a heart attack. Now the owner's grandson, Fabrizio, has filed a lawsuit against the magazine, and if Hanna can't convince him to drop the case, she'll lose her job.
It should have been an ordinary birth, the start of an ordinary happy family. But the night Dr David Henry delivers his wife's twins is a night that will haunt five lives for ever.
LuLing Young is now in her 80s, and finally beginning to feel the effects of old age. Trying to hold on to the evaporating past, she begins to write down all that she can remember of her life as a girl in China. Meanwhile, her daughter Ruth, a ghostwriter for authors of self-help books, is losing the ability to speak up for herself in front of the man she lives with. LuLing can only look on, helpless: her prickly relationship with her daughter does not make it easy to discuss such matters.
Throughout the years, sisters Gracie and Juliette Bennett have let life's changes pull them in opposite directions. But when their beloved grandmother Mimi passes away, they're drawn back together in the most unexpected way. Set to inherit the family home, a charming Craftsman with an overgrown garden and lush fruit trees near the beach in Santa Barbara, the estranged sisters learn there's a catch: the house can be theirs, but only if they agree to live in it for one year - together.
Sixty-one-year-old Shelby Truman, a romance novelist, has received a request to visit her childhood friend, Eddie, who is on Death Row. Though mentally ill, Eddie is scheduled to be executed for the disturbing, brutal murders of his wife and unborn child. As Shelby travels home to Texas for the unnerving reunion, she steps back into memories of her past, recalling her five-decade-long relationship with Eddie in order to understand what led the beautiful but troubled boy who lived across the street to become a murderer.
In 1946, artist Rebecca Swift's dreams of love and a life free from convention are crashing like the waves of the Australian coast below her. And it's into those roiling waters that she disappears. Forty-one years later, Tess Miller's dreams are crashing, too. The once-successful New York editor has lost her most prestigious author to the handsome new golden boy of publishing. Meanwhile, she's stuck with Edward Russell, a washed-up Australian poet writing a novel about some obscure artist named Rebecca Swift.
The hilarious and poignant new novel from the best-selling author of The Kicking the Bucket List. When a box set of Broadchurch is more appealing than having sex with your husband, then perhaps it's time to hide the remote.... Cait and Matt have been married for 30 years. They are rock solid. An inspiration to others. Stuck together like glue - aren't they? But Cait can't shake off the feeling that something is missing.
What if your best friend’s child disappears? On your watch? What would you do? This is exactly what happens to Lisa Kallisto one freezing December in the English Lakes. Her whole world descends into the stuff of nightmares. Because, not only is 13-year-old Lucinda missing, and not only is it all Lisa’s fault, but she’s the second teenage girl to disappear within a fortnight. And the first one turned up stripped bare, after suffering from a terrifying ordeal. Wracked with guilt over her mistake, and after being publicly blamed by Lucinda’s family, Lisa sets out to right the wrong.
When an exotic stranger, Vianne Rocher, arrives in the French village of Lansquenet and opens a chocolate boutique directly opposite the church, Father Reynaud denounces her as a serious moral danger to his flock - especially as it is the beginning of Lent, the traditional season of self-denial. As passions flare and the conflict escalates, the whole community takes sides. Can the solemnity of the church compare with the sinful pleasure of a chocolate truffle?
Danielle Flood, a journalist born of the wartime love triangle that inspired the one in Graham Greene's The Quiet American, searches for her father after surviving a bizarre youth of privilege, estrangement, and cruelty. As she yearns for her father's love and presence, Danielle's beautiful French and Vietnamese mother leaves her in burlesque house dressing rooms in the American Midwest, in convent schools in Long Island and Dublin, and with strangers in New York City.
Facing challenges in an increasingly colonial world, Chye Hoon, a rebellious young girl, must learn to embrace her mixed Malayan-Chinese identity as a Nyonya - and her destiny as a cook, rather than following her first dream of attending school like her brother. Amidst the smells of chillies and garlic frying, Chye Hoon begins to appreciate the richness of her traditions, eventually marrying Wong Peng Choon, a Chinese man. Together, they have ten children.
You just can't plan for this kind of thing. Diane Tate certainly hasn't. She never expected to slowly lose her talented husband to the debilitating effects of early-onset Alzheimer's disease. As a respected family court judge, she's spent her life making tough calls, but when her 68-year-old husband's health worsens and Diane is forced to move him into an assisted living facility, it seems her world is spinning out of control. As Gregory's memory wavers and fades, Diane and her children must reexamine their connection to the man he once was - and learn to love the man he has become.
Hanna flees the scene of a terrible crime in her native Sligo. London seems the perfect place to disappear.... Lara has always loved Matthew, but when he says he wants to join the priesthood, a brokenhearted Lara heads to the most godless place she can find.... Matthew's twin sister, Noreen, could not be more different from her brother. She craves sex, parties and fun.... All three girls find themselves working for one of London's most feared gangland bosses, and it's not long before their new lives start to unravel.
A story of friendship, resilience and compassion and how women support each other through the most difficult times. Connie Carter has lost everyone and everything dear to her. Leaving her home in New York, she moves to a run-down Irish mansion, hoping to heal her shattered heart and in search of answers: how could her husband do the terrible things he did? And why did he plough all their money into the dilapidated Ludlow Hall before he died, without ever telling her?
Set in the capital city of the world's happiest country, a comedy of manners about depression, the pressures of marriage, and the possibility of falling in love again, from the bestselling author of A House for Happy Mothers.
Based on a true story, The Less You Know the Sounder You Sleep is a tale of survival and self-determination, innocence and lies. 'We're waiting. I squeeze my eyes shut and dig my fingers into Masha's neck where I'm holding her. She digs hers into mine. The curtains slowly open. I can't see anything because the spotlight is on us, bright as anything and blinding me, but I can hear the gasp go up. They always gasp.'
Deeply in love and about to marry, students Misha and Sophia flee a Warsaw under Nazi occupation for a chance at freedom. Forced to return to the Warsaw ghetto, they help Misha's mentor, Dr Korczak, care for the 200 children in his orphanage. As the noose tightens around the ghetto, Misha and Sophia are torn from one another, forcing them to face their worst fears alone. Meanwhile, refusing to leave the children unprotected, Korczak must confront a terrible darkness.
Gretchen Lin, adrift at the age of thirty, leaves her floundering marriage in San Francisco to move back to her childhood home in Singapore and immediately finds herself face-to-face with the twin headaches she’s avoided her entire adult life: her mother’s drinking problem and the machinations of her father’s artisanal soy sauce business.
Surrounded by family, Gretchen struggles with the tension between personal ambition and filial duty, but still finds time to explore a new romance with the son of a client, an attractive man of few words. When an old American friend comes to town, the two of them are pulled into the controversy surrounding Gretchen’s cousin, the only male grandchild and the heir apparent to Lin’s Soy Sauce.
In the midst of increasing pressure from her father to remain permanently in Singapore - and pressure from her mother to do just the opposite - Gretchen must decide whether she will return to her marriage and her graduate studies at the San Francisco Conservatory, or sacrifice everything and join her family’s crusade to spread artisanal soy sauce to the world.
Soy Sauce for Beginners reveals the triumphs and sacrifices that shape one woman’s search for a place to call home, and the unexpected art and tradition behind the brewing of a much-used but unsung condiment. The result is a foodie love story that will give listeners a hearty appreciation for family loyalty and fresh starts.
Where does Soy Sauce for Beginners rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Kristin Chen's story is an enjoyable coming-of-age or finding-my-true-self kind of book. It's not earth shattering, but the right amount of personal input from the author to make you believe and care about Gretchen and her family. Chen creates a Gretchen as protagonist in which readers can find a connection. Sometimes that connection was a little too close to home and I wanted reach into the story to whisper to Gretchen: "How can you say/do that! Don't you see..." The supporting cast reinforces the relief between the two worlds (California and Singapore) Gretchen navigates. The ending maybe a little predictable, but I think that is the point of the story: Gretchen finds her way into a choice that makes sense for her and the person she has, and wishes, to become. May we all find that.
What do you think the narrator could have done better?
It was easy to listen to Nancy Wu's narration. This book uses different English voices (Californian American, 'good' Singaporean English, Australian English) as well as Singlish, and Chinese. I can't say how authentic Wu's interpretation of each are, but she did a good job of making them palatable to my American ear. I wish Wu had done a little research for the lyrics excerpted. I get it that a narrator may not be able to sing lyrics, but she could have gotten the phrasing and syllable emphasis correct and mimic a little of the tonal qualities of the songs. It was very distracting that she read them in monotone and with completely different phrasing. All in all I would listen to another narration by Nancy Wu, as long as there were no lyrics or poems.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Great story! I would also give the narrator an A+!!! She had the Singapore dialect down perfectly when quoting other characters.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Would you be willing to try another one of Nancy Wu’s performances?
No. I'm Singaporean and this a thoroughly inauthentic and downright painful stab at a performance that kills the experience. A wholly cringe-worthy listen that does not represent the characters accurately. Will be sure to avoid Wu's performances avidly.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful
An entertaining story with a message that prompts personal introspection. The audio narration is solid and fits the story well (and is better than most narration).
This book was amazing, it's full of love, family and friendships. Hands down one of my favorite books!! She needs to write more!!!!!
The narrator did a wonderful job reading this book. She has an easy to listen to voice quality as well as excellent expression and pacing. As one who listens to many audiobooks, I can tell you this narrator is a cut above the rest of them!